`A Wall Of Smoke:' Panicking Motorists Flee Tunnel

HAMPTON — Mike Sutton was trapped just a few cars behind the 1984 Chevrolet van that caught fire and created a panic inside the smoke-filled westbound tube of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Monday.

Sutton grabbed bottles of carbon dioxide from emergency stations along the tunnel wall and tried to extinguish the blaze, which erupted when the van's engine caught fire.

"I went through four bottles, but we couldn't get it out," said Sutton, a Norfolk resident. "Then I said, `Get out of here, guys. It's going to blow.' We couldn't see because of the smoke, but I heard a boom.

"Then I just started hollering, `Get out of your cars and start walking out.' Everyone was grabbing their babies and running out of the tunnel. I had to put a shirt over my head because of the smoke."

Sutton and others who were near the van ran or walked about a mile through the tunnel to safety.

Fairfax resident Aaron Naas, 19, was headed back home after a weekend in Virginia Beach.

``I looked up and there was a wall of smoke,'' he said. ``I thought we were going to be trapped in there.'' As he and his friends started to run from their car, he said, "The wall of smoke was coming up faster than we ran."

Naas and others said some motorists, in a panic, tried to back their cars out of the tunnel while many other cars sat abandoned. That effort caused some minor collisions as cars' front ends were rammed.

Naas said he saw women who were struggling to get their children out of cars and out of the tunnel, and stopped to pick up a small girl to carry her out. When he reached the mouth of the tunnel after a quarter-mile run, he said, he was woozy and nearly fainted from the smoke. A woman helped prop him up by a railing and the fresh air revived him.

``One woman was running out of the tunnel with two kids under her arms, screaming,'' said Hampton fire department medic Jesse Barbour.

As they emerged from the tunnel, motorists camped by the tunnel entrance, while state transportation officials cleaned up the mess and washed down the tunnel walls. The remains of the charred van were removed at about 1:45 p.m.

Reporters walking through the tunnel during the cleanup could see signs of how fast motorists tried to flee. Left along the highway and the tunnel catwalk were scattered belongings that were either dropped or discarded: a torn, white, baby sneaker; a small, sullied pillow; a can of Mountain Dew soda.

After the cleanup, state officials shuttled motorists to their cars while others walked back through the tunnel to get to them. Many were clutching a few belongings, such as pocketbooks and blankets. One woman carried a small dog.

Peggy Faggert, a Virginia Beach resident who was on her way to Yorktown for a Memorial Day event, managed to endure the traffic tie-up with good humor.

"I was a little scared, but that's all," she said. "Any time you come away from something like this with just an hour's inconvenience, you take it in good stride."

With her car covered in soot, Faggert scrawled on the car roof the words "Wash me."